Unknown_Corot-2012

24 . Lady with Long Hair in Profile , c. 1870

Graphite on paper 6 ½ x 5 ½ inches ( 16 . 8 x 13 . 9 cm) Estate sale stamp lower left: Lugt 460 a

provenance Corot sale 1875 ; Sale, Christie’s London, November 21 , 1996 .

Private Collection

While Corot drew and painted figures throughout his career, he painted more figures in the 1860 s and 1870 s than at any other time. Many of these are bust-length depictions of female models in Italian costume whose poses, dress, and frequently idealized features are meant to invoke the works of Raphael and Leonardo. The present sheet, though not directly related to a particular painting that we can identify, belongs to this world of Renaissance-inspired half length figures. On the one hand, the individual traits of the model’s profile are observed and recorded with great specificity, while the neckline, costume, and three-quarter orientation of the body from the shoulders downward invoke the c. 1500 atmosphere of works such as Woman with a Pearl ( La Femme à la Perle , c. 1860–68 , Musée du Louvre, Paris, RF 2040 ), and the later Sibylle (c. 1870–73 , Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 29 . 100 . 565 ). Many of Corot’s half-length figures from this era openly declare their sources of inspiration. The Woman with a Pearl , for example, refers directly to Leonardo’s La Giaconda (Mona Lisa) in the Louvre, and to a drawing by Raphael also in the Louvre, while the pose of the woman in Sibylle is based on the Raphael’s Portrait of Bindo Altoviti , which Corot would have known from engravings. It is tempting to speculate that the present work may have some source in Leonardo’s large cartoon for the portrait of Isabella d’Este, which entered the Louvre in 1860 (MI 753 ), became quite well known, and was reproduced in an engraving by Alphonse Leroy between 1860 and 1880 .

Corot occasionally exhibited his later figures in public venues. He also displayed these works in his studio alongside his landscape paintings and they came to be known by a small

Sibylle , c. 1870–73 , Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York